Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ O keeps us in tow

Whether she’s playing a blood-sucking mosquito, a stranger on a train, a seductive black widow, a war-mongering Martian, a lovable sociopath, a brooding poet or a blushing bride, Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Karen O embodies that character and makes it come to life.

And even though her disjointed, stream-of-quirkiness lyrics on the Brooklyn garage-rock trio’s latest “Mosquito” sometimes make Khloé Kardashian sound like a Rhodes scholar, her Chrissie Hynde-like stage command and conviction make her sound great portraying practically anything.

With guitarist-keyboardist Nick Zinner and drummer Brian Chase fleshing out their punk chanteuse’s tempestuous, tortured-artist tangents, the always quirky and captivating O (whose surname is Orzolek) is refreshingly uninhibited and often in your face as she shifts from being neurotic to erotic to psychotic and back again.

And you, too, can see what the buzz is all about when Yeah Yeah Yeahs brings “Mosquito” to the House of Blues in Boston on May 12.

O is touched by an angel (and then some) on the deliciously depraved damnation ditty, “Sacrilege.” And talk about wings of desire: O has fallen for a fallen angel and, not only is he rocking her world and filling up her bed with molted feathers, O is afraid that she might be damned for all eternity for sexual indiscretions. Pleading and praying for her salvation, while still hooking up with her heavenly halo honey, O’s distorted and shrilly vocals cry out, “It’s sacrilege!” Her manic cries permeate in an ominous mix of sparse guitar jangles, clanky drum beats and muffled bass line. That is, until a ferocious gospel choir, serving as both judge and jury, seals her fate with a fire-and-brimstone climax.

O teeters on Terri Nunn’s turf on “Subway,” singing about some phantom lover she met (and lost) on the New York metro. Singing practically underneath her breath, almost as if she’s afraid to stir up her sleeping libido, O seductively coos about strangers (turned strange lovers) on the train and exclaims, “Well, I got, I got, I got, got off, got off, got off on you.” With the clattering sound of a railcar rolling down the tracks craftily weaved together with an ambient sounding mix of swelling keyboards, elastic bass lines and fluid guitars, O reveals in her soft-spoken, slowly plotted but emotionally resonating internal monologue her quiet desperation and isolated heartbreak.

The title-track “Mosquito” sounds like a twisted lullaby a mother would tell her baby spider. In the guise of a blood-sucking creepy-crawler, O literally buzzes in our ear as she incessantly threatens, “I’ll suck your blood, suck your, suck your, suck your blood.” You had us with the first suck. The unnerving tension on this dark and twisted punk rave-up is heightened by its use of tribal drums and a thumping, “Psycho Killer”-inspired bass line. Whether the song will make you squeal with delight and/or make your skin crawl, no one can deny O’s manic intensity that is somehow sexy and undeniably psychotic.

Another lover is dead and buried as far as O is concerned on the open-grave ditty, “Under the Earth.” Although she threatens that she will “milk you for what you’re worth and call it murder” (because, technically it is murder), the spine-tingly seductress also warns, “Runaway, runaway not a ghost or roach would stay/You’re on your own, on your own/You’re not safe.” While she frets her night out on the town has been hampered with another body to dispose of (and the body, it turns out, is yours), O is not only a dangerous sociopath but a hapless party girl. And being accompanied by a dub-reggae mix of swirling synths and low, rumbling bass just adds to party vibe.

O has a serious case of Siouxsie Sioux envy on the sadomasochistic-friendly, goth rocker “Slave.” Here, the unabashed singer will figuratively and literally whip you in a frenzy with her sick and depraved, dominatrix-worthy come-on lines and spellbinding seductiveness. Alongside a sinister, sonic tapestry of snarly guitars, nail-scratching rhythms and thumping beats, O becomes the enchantress of one’s deepest, darkest fantasies, as she seductively coos, “It eats your soul/Like tears you fall, my slave/You steal. You held the call my slave.” Where do I sign up?

Mankind is mincemeat on the Iggy Pop-meets-B-52s opus, “Area 52.” Here, O gives us the best of both worlds, playing a meteor-hurdling, “violent fuzz” blasting space invader and willing to be an enslaved space cadet. With a manic intensity that is enough to scare of the bejesus out of the ghost of Orson Welles, O threatens, “Message came from outer space/Future of the human race/Hell is not the hottest place/Let it go, shed your skin/Children never sleep again.” When there is no hope for the human race, what’s a poor girl to do except turn her back on humanity and betray mankind (which O certainly does). The Yeah Yeah Yeahs singer gets her ya-ya’s out in the groveling lines, “I wanna be your passenger/Take me as your prisoner/I wanna be an alien/Take me please, oh alien” Souped-up guitars and spacy squiggles add to this unabashed, B-movie-themed punk romp.

Who knew O was such a romantic softie? On the album’s sweet and sentimental closer “Wedding Song,” O plays her most unorthodox persona yet, and that is a real-life, devoted wife. Not only will this straight-forward love song take Yeah Yeah Yeahs fans off-guard, it will make you think of O as being more than an anime character on acid. Wearing her heart on her tattered fishnets, O — who sang this lovelorn opus at her 2011 wedding reveals more of herself in this one song than she has in her entire catalog. With sparse piano notes and a thumping bass line that sounds like it’s mimicking a heartbeat swirling around her, O warmly coos, “I’d die without you here/In flames I sleep soundly with angels around me/I lay at your feet/You’re the breath that I breathe.” Yes, it’s mushy. It’s also masterful.

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